The Walking Dead Review by John Keegan

The Walking Dead 7.12: Say Yes

Written By:Matthew Negrete

Directed By:Greg Nicotero

Despite having quite a bit more action than the
episode before it, this installment manages to feel like it’s barely making any
headway. And considering that it focuses
so much time on Rick and Michonne, it’s strange how much of a misfire it seems
to be. The couple goes hunting for guns
to fulfill their part of the deal with their new allies, and hilarity
ensues. Including a lot of things that
should have gotten them killed.

Perhaps the most egregious moment comes late in
the episode, when the writers try to convince the audience, for just a few
moments, that they actually might have killed off Rick. Maybe that’s overstating it, since the intent
was to convince Michonne of the possibility, and show how she reacts to the
thought. But the way they played it
seemed to cross the line into audience manipulation, and it just felt
oversold. It glossed over the disturbing
thought that Michonne is so invested in a future with Rick that she would be
willing to die if he fell.

It's hard to imagine Michonne giving up, so it
seems like the kind of detail that ought to have gotten more time for
exploration. Yes, they did talk about
it, and Michonne is the natural one to take up his mantle if Rick gets killed
in the war against Negan, but if it’s that important, messing around with gobs
of Walkers when they know situations can quickly get out of control seems like
a fairly irresponsible decision. What if
both of them had died while taunting the undead? How quickly would things have fallen
apart? For that matter, how many times
have the Saviors come calling and wondered where Rick is?

Meanwhile, Rosita gets a lot of screen time,
and that’s unfortunate. Rosita is
distressingly one-note, all anger, and there’s only so much that can be done to
make that interesting. Yes, she
eventually solicits Sasha’s partnership to go gunning for Negan together as
some kind of Abraham-inspired sisterhood of vengeance, but it’s a long road to
get there. The outcome seems inevitable,
so unless there is a surprising shift sideways, I don’t see where this is
going.

Similarly, while it’s nice that Tara is
thinking about what to do with Oceanside, it doesn’t quite go beyond reminding
the audience they exist and have a good amount of training with weapons. Tara
has a lot to think about on that score, but it’s exactly what was predicted
after her solo episode, so it feels like treading water. Probably the biggest revelation there was
that the writers remembered Judith was still around!

What the episode did for me was perhaps to the
contrary of its purpose. It took
something that was fairly amenable in the Rick/Michonne relationship and made
it less palatable. Because there’s
something insidious in the suggestion that Michonne would just give up and die
if Rick were to get killed. It’s just
not the character we came to adore in earlier seasons, and it actually makes
the argument that Michonne is weaker as a result of the relationship. It’s a horrible writing choice, in so many
respects.

Our Grade:

C+

The Good:

At least there’s progress in getting the guns for the alliance

The Bad:

Michonne, as a character, is not served particularly well by this turn of events

Rosita is a character that could do a lot more than be really, really angry

John Keegan aka "criticalmyth", is one of the hosts of the "Critical Myth" podcast heard here on VOG Network's radio feed Monday, Wednesday & Friday. You can follow him on twitter at @criticalmyth

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